Next week is National Work Zone Awareness Week, encouraging public awareness of the danger of workers and drivers being hurt or killed in a roadside work zone in Illinois and Indiana.
Next week begins the annual public awareness campaign to make drivers more aware of their surroundings and the risk of hitting someone who is at work on the roadside or in a roadway in a work zone. For more, read about the history of Work Zone Awareness Week, which began in 1997 with the Virginia Department of Transportation.
While most assume that Work Zone Accidents involve construction workers, the truth is that work zone accidents hurt and kill workers in a variety of occupations – as well as drivers and passengers in the vehicles involved in the work zone crash.
2019 Hike in Illinois State Troopers Work Zone Accidents
So far this year, two Illinois State Police Troopers have died in work zone accidents, hit by motor vehicles while the officers were on the job on a state roadway.
In January, Illinois Trooper Christopher Lambert died after being hit by a car as he was working the scene of an accident on Interstate 294.
In March, Illinois Trooper Brooke Jones-Story was killed as she was conducting a traffic stop on U.S. Highway 20.
According to news reports, the death of Trooper Jones-Story was the fifteenth (15th) work zone crash involving an Illinois State Trooper this year, with 2019 tallying more Trooper work zone crashes than the previous three years combined.
For more, read “‘Dark day’ for Illinois State Police as another trooper hit by vehicle, killed on the job,” written by Elyssa Cherney and published by the Chicago Tribune on March 28, 2019.
The tragic trend of increasing work zone accidents involving officers on the roadside to protect and serve the public serves to warn us all that these kinds of incidents involve a variety of workers on the job at a roadside.
2019 Indiana Next Level Roads Construction Season Kickoff
Last week, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb announced the kickoff of Indiana’s Next Level Roads Construction Season. This continues Governor Holcomb’s Next Level Roads plan, which is a long term strategy to “… fund roads and bridges, [so] Hoosiers can rest assured that Indiana will remain the Crossroads of America for generations to come.”
For details on the Indiana Next Level Roads Plan, go here. There are currently active road construction projects in La Porte, Crawfordsville, Vincennes, Fort Wayne, Greenfield, and Seymour (see map here) involving a variety of efforts including bridges and roads.
This is a massive, long-term plan involving infrastructure across the Hoosier State. Over 1100 projects are scheduled along Indiana roadways in 2019 alone.
Along with the kickoff of this year’s Roads Plan, Governor Holcomb has declared next week (April 8-12) as Work Zone Awareness Week in Indiana. Hoosiers are encouraged to wear orange on April 10, 2019, to promote work zone safety awareness.
How Dangerous is a Roadside Work Zone?
Many drivers may zip pass someone working in a roadside construction site, or an officer who has stopped someone on the shoulder, and never give a thought to the risks facing those people in simply doing their job so close to moving traffic.
Anyone who is on foot anywhere near a moving motor vehicle at any speed is at risk of serious injury or death should that car, truck, sedan, SUV, or minivan hit him or her.
Even more at risk are the drivers and passengers involved in a highway work zone accident. The majority of work zone fatalities (4 out of 5) are not the roadside worker, but those in the motor vehicle involved in the work zone collision.
According to the Indiana Department of Transportation:
- Most work zone accidents are rear-end collisions.
- Most work zone crashes happen in summer and fall.
- Most work zone crash fatalities happen when the speed limit exceeds 50 mph.
- Within the work zone, the most likely area for an accident is where the vehicle is entering or leaving the zone, because of changing lanes or merging into traffic.
State Laws Governing Work Zones in Indiana and Illinois
Both Indiana and Illinois have passed legislation to protect against serious or fatal work zone accidents.
Illinois
In Illinois, the work zone statute is called “Scott’s Law,” in honor of a firefighter named Lieutenant Scott Gillen of the Chicago Fire Department, who perished in a work zone accident on the Dan Ryan Expressway.
Scott’s Law mandates that anyone driving on Illinois roads and approaching any kind of emergency vehicle stopped along the roadside (police, fire, EMS, etc.) including roadside construction slow down, change lanes if they can to give as much room as possible to the work area, and to proceed through the work zone cautiously.
Indiana
Indiana has several laws, both civil and criminal, that pertain to work zones on Indiana roadways. These include:
- Indiana Work Zone Safety Law (2011)
- Highway Work Zone Criminal Law (IC 9-21-8-56)
- Highway Work Site Speed Limit Law (IC-9-21-5-11)
Overall, the Indiana statutes work to fine anyone who violates state highway work zone laws. The fines range from $300 for the first offense to $1000 for a third offense within 36 months. Any driver charged with driving aggressively or in a reckless manner through an Indiana work zone can be fined $5000.
Deaths resulting from an Indiana work zone collision can involve criminal indictments and incarceration of up to 6 years as well as a $10,000 fine.
Justice for Work Zone Accident Victims and Their Loved Ones
Work Zone accidents often involve construction areas on a local roadway, although anyone working alongside a roadside is in danger of a Work Zone collision.
It is imperative that drivers in both Indiana and Illinois understand the risks of a serious or fatal accident as they drive near any work zone. Drivers and passengers need to know they are in great danger as they maneuver though these work areas and that they face the greatest risk of work zone injuries, rather than the work zone worker.
For those who have been injured or killed in a work zone roadway accident, there are state laws in both Indiana and Illinois to provide them justice. These specific circumstances may warrant special investigation regarding both the cause(s) of the incident as well as the parties who may share liability for what has occurred. Please be careful out there!
